Wednesday, June 29, 2016

The National Gallery of Canada (NGC) presents, from June 25 to October 10, 2016, Tamayo: A Solitary Mexican Modernist,
an exhibition that celebrates the work of Rufino Tamayo, whose
paintings, prints and sculptures brought international attention to
20th-century Mexican art. This is the first solo-exhibition dedicated to
the artist ever presented in Canada.

Tamayo is one of Mexico's most significant modernist
artists, recognized for having achieved his own individual style despite
the domination of his contemporaries, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro
Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco, who were uncompromising in their
allegiance to the social and political ideals that formed the basis of
Mexico’s post-revolutionary art. Younger than they by ten years, Tamayo,
looked to the future and the modern world, as well as finding
inspiration in Mexico’s past traditions.

Commemorating the 25th anniversary of Tamayo's death,
the exhibition presents 18 paintings plus a series of 12 lithographs on
loan from various Mexican institutions and one work from the National
Gallery’s Collection, together covering roughly 60 years of the
painter’s artistic production. Marisol Argüelles, deputy director at
Mexico’s Museum of Modern Art, is the curator of the exhibition, with
the support of Erika Dolphin, Associate Curator to the Chief Curator at
the National Gallery of Canada.

The National Gallery of Canada thanks the following institutions who made the presentation of Tamayo: A Solitary Mexican Modernist possible: the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, the Secretaría de Cultura, AMEXCID,
and the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes of Mexico as well as the
Museo de Arte Moderno, the Museo Nacional de Arte, and the Museo Tamayo.

“Mexican modernist art holds an important place in the
vanguard movements of the twentieth century and will be of great
interest to Canadians,” said the National Gallery of Canada Director and
CEO Marc Mayer. “We are pleased to present this exhibition, a fine
introduction to the outstanding work of Rufino Tamayo, to coincide with
the North American Leaders’ Summit being held at the Gallery on June
29.”

“One of Mexico’s foremost modernist painters, Rufino
Tamayo drew inspiration from Pre-Columbian art forms and our country’s
rich history and popular art. His first solo-exhibition in Canada, to be
held at the National Gallery on the 25th anniversary of his death, is a
celebration of Mexican-Canadian cultural ties,” commented the Mexican
Ambassador to Canada, his Excellency Agustín García-López.

To celebrate the exhibition of Tamayo works at the
National Gallery, the National Gallery of Canada Foundation will host a
special reception at the Gallery on Friday, June 24.

Foundation Chair, Thomas d’Aquino, said, “We are
honoured to receive the works of this Mexican master on the eve of the
State Visit to Canada of the President of Mexico and in advance of the
historic North American Leaders’ Summit which will be proudly hosted at
the National Gallery of Canada.”

About Rufino Tamayo (August 25, 1899 – June 24, 1991)

Born in Oaxaca, Tamayo was orphaned at age twelve.
Under the guardianship of his aunt, he moved to Mexico City and secretly
attended night classes in drawing. The environment of his early years
would be a recurring motif throughout his work. Although his art reveals
many aesthetic pursuits, one in particular stands out above all: a
sense of freedom that allowed him – unlike artists of previous
generations – to incorporate a set of formal codes from folk art and
pre-Columbian Mexican mythology such as the use of colour and monumental
forms. These coexisted in his work with the vocabulary of international
art, confirming early on his universal vision of art.

Today Rufino Tamayo's work appears in many public and
private collections around the world. He created the mural entitled
Fraternity (1968), which was donated by Mexico to the United Nations
Headquarters in New York in 1971. As part of Mexico’s artistic heritage,
the National Institute of Fine Arts has an unrivaled collection of
Tamayo’s work, mainly on deposit at the Museum of Modern Art. The
personal collection belonging to the artist and his wife, which
emphasizes paintings and sculpture from Europe, the United States, Latin
America and Asia from 1945 to 1975, formed the foundation of the Rufino
Tamayo Museum of International Contemporary Art, founded in 1981.

18 June – 28 August 2016Scottish National GalleryThe greatest Flemish artist of the seventeenth century, Sir Peter
Paul Rubens (1577-1640), will be at the centre of the exciting new
display of master drawings at the Scottish National Gallery this summer.
Rubens and Company will celebrate the Gallery’s outstanding
selection of Flemish drawings and prints, with masterpieces by Rubens,
Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678) and Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), shown
alongside rarely-seen works by Flemish contemporaries such as Cornelis
Schut (1597-1655) and Frans Wouters (1612-1659).Rubens is considered the towering figure of the Flemish Baroque – the
period between the late sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries – and
one of the greatest artists of all time. In the seventeenth century
Flanders, together with Brabant, was the most prominent province of the
Southern Netherlands, which were then under Spanish control; today it
marks the northern, Dutch-speaking part of modern Belgium.The display
includes Rubens’s

beautiful sketch Hero and Leander, c.1600-3, and Eight Women Harvesting, c.1635, which was probably drawn outdoors and from life. Rubens’s work shows
the strong influence of classical sculpture, and of Italian Renaissance
artists such as Raphael and Michelangelo. As a painter of religious
pictures, mythological scenes, classical and modern history and
portraits, Rubens was a prominent figure on an international stage and
had a broad impact on other artists, including Van Dyck and Jordaens.

Sir Anthony van Dyck

Study for the Portrait of Nicolas Lanier (1588 - 1666), 1628

Drawing (black chalk): 39.20 x 28.50 cm

Scottish National Gallery

Van Dyck’s Study for the Portrait of Nicholas Lanier (1588-1666), a delicate black chalk drawing from 1628, will be displayed in the exhibition, as well as Jordaens’s beautiful Female Nude (1641) and

Jacob Jordaens

The Adoration of the Magi, 1644

Drawing (black chalk): 47.50 x 34.70 cm

Scottish National Gallery. William Findlay Watson Bequest.

The Adoration of the Magi (1644).Among the highlights of the display will be some new discoveries made
during research for the exhibition, including a rare drawing for one of
the most important commissions Rubens ever received.

Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens

Saint Gregory of Nazianzus Subduing Heresy, 1620

Drawing (red and white bodycolour): 22.9 x 38.5 cm

Scottish National Gallery

Saint Gregory of Nazianzus Subduing Heresy,
which dates from 1620, was previously regarded as a copy after a lost
painting by Rubens; new research, however, suggests this drawing was
made in the artist’s studio, under the master’s supervision.

Frans Wouters

Diana and Actaeon,
c.1654-56

Oil on panel: 8.00 x 39.50 cm

Scottish National Gallery. Bequeathed by George Watson throught the Art Fund 2015.

An oil
sketch after Titian’s world-famous Diana and Actaeon, which is
part of the Scottish National Gallery collection, was previously
attributed to David Teniers the Younger and is now considered to be by
Frans Wouters, a member of Rubens’s extensive studio. This oil sketch
was acquired in 2015 through the Art Fund.

Rubens and Company will comprise 28 works in total. Many of
these are preparatory drawings or studies which offer a fascinating
insight into the function of drawings as well as studio practice; some
of them have rarely, in some cases never, been displayed before.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a beautifully illustrated
catalogue, which provides a lively panorama of Flemish draughtsmanship
in the seventeenth century, its subjects and techniques. The publication
has been supported by the General Representation of the Government of
Flanders in the UK. This catalogue includes an in-depth discussion of
the twenty-eight works in the exhibition as well as an introductory
essay highlighting the paintings by Rubens and Van Dyck in the
collection of the Scottish National Gallery

Infatuation with arresting beauty has always compelled artists to produce masterpieces and four superb works are included in Christie’s 250th anniversary sale, Defining British Art, to be held in London on the evening of 30 June 2016.

Keats influenced his contemporaries and successors on the symbols and sentiments that ignited a revival in a new romanticism through intense realism and beauty in art. Never previously offered for sale,

Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Portrait of Lucy Long, Mrs. George Hardinge (1820) encapsulates that of a ‘society beauty’, being one of the finest works by the artist to come to the market in a generation (estimate: £2,000,000-3,000,000). Accompanied by her spaniel in the foreground of the canvas, Lucy Long’s stoic and elegant demeanor is captured as she gazes pensively onwards, producing an informative portrait of an esteemed figure in 19th century Britain.

Nonetheless, it was Dante Gabriel Rossetti who pioneered a new aesthetic evident in his depictions of his enigmatic muse, Jane Morris. As depicted in

Portrait of Jane Morris, bust-length (circa 1870), her unusual appearance was strikingly at odds with any conventional notion of feminine grace, yet Rossetti captured her with an unprecedented, tasteful and irresistible intensity - providing a breathtaking portrait of his flawless lover. Formerly part of a significant collection owned by L.S Lowry and was sold by his heirs, this coloured chalk on light green paper is estimated at £300,000-500,000.

After the compelling purity of Rossetti’s Jane Morris is Frederic Leighton’s flirtatious and alluring

Pavonia (circa 1859). Producing a work of art contrasting to that of his contemporaries, Leighton captures a sensuality in the serene but confident sitter. Focusing solely on the physicality and subject of his striking Mediterranean model, Nanna Risi, we are not desensitised by exaggerated foregrounds or additional features, but gripped by her exotic beauty, juxtaposed with the magnificent display of a peacock fan, a timeless symbol of vanity (estimate: £1,500,000-2,500,000).

The fourth muse replaces the colour and seduction of her predecessors for a quaint charm which is as wholly appealing and mesmerising.

Lucian Freud’s A Girl (Pauline Tennant) (circa 1945), conveys an obvious stillness in its depiction. Pauline Tennant, portrayed truthfully to her rather unconventional personality and described as “a true bohemian aristocrat” (Phillip Hoare, The Independent) appears carefully delineated upon a muted canvas but animated in both beauty and psyche (estimate: £2,000,000-3,000,000).

This summer the Rijksmuseum is staging the first ever major
retrospective of work by Adriaen van de Velde (1636-1672), one of the
greatest landscape painters of the Golden Age. The exhibition features
sixty paintings, preliminary studies and drawings by the talented
artist, who died tragically young. They come from private collections
and from museums including the Louvre, the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
in Kassel, Museo Thyssen Bornemisza Madrid, the Mauritshuis and the
British Museum.

Unsurpassed master

For much of his short life – he died when he was just thirty-five –
he was regarded as one of the greatest artists of the seventeenth
century. During his lifetime he was known as an outstanding painter of
people and animals. His posthumous fame endured until the mid-twentieth
century. Today, the public is barely aware of his name, and the
Rijksmuseum and the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London have decided to
rectify this situation.

A landscape painter from a family of seascape painters

Son of the famous marine painter Willem van de Velde the Elder and
brother of the equally famous Willem van de Velde the Younger, child
prodigy Adriaen became a landscape painter – and a phenomenal
draughtsman. His figure and animal studies – usually drawn in red chalk –
are regarded as sublime examples of the genre. His drawings reveal that
he made meticulous preparations for his popular painted landscapes.
Other artists also regularly asked him to paint figures in their
landscapes and townscapes.

Unique look at working methods

By reuniting Van de Velde’s refined paintings with their preliminary
drawings, the exhibition presents a representative idea of his oeuvre
and gives visitors a unique insight into Van de Velde’s working method:
many of the motifs in the detailed drawings appear in his paintings.
Like no other artist of his time, Van de Velde enables viewers to follow
every stage of the creative process.

Special loans

The sixty works in the exhibition – thirty-seven drawings and
twenty-three paintings – come from public and private collections in the
Netherlands and abroad. Works of special note include The Beach at Scheveningen,
a work he painted when he was twenty-one, on loan from the
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel, and the wooden panel of a beach
scene, dating from 1660, a rare loan from the Louvre. The Rijksmuseum is
represented by five paintings and ten drawings.

Publication

A lavishly illustrated book accompanies the exhibition. It is the
first commercially-available publication about Adriaen van de Velde. An
introduction to the artist’s life, career and artistic background is
followed by some forty entries, describing all of the more than sixty
works. As in the exhibition, the focus is on the visual richness of the
work and the artist’s working method. Visitors to the exhibition and
readers of the book will feel that they are looking over the artist’s
shoulder.
Adriaen van de Velde: Dutch Master of Landscape | JUNE 2016:
Hardback, 280 x 245 mm, 228 pages, 250 colour illus. PRICE: £34.95 ISBN:
978 1 907372 96 4

Adriaen van de Velde: Dutch Master of Landscape runs from 24
June to 25 September 2016 in the Philips Wing of the Rijksmuseum. The
exhibition is staged in collaboration with the Dulwich Picture Gallery
in London, where it can be seen this autumn.

Couple in a Landscape, Adriaen van de Velde,
1667. Rijksmuseum Collection. On loan from Amsterdam City Council (A.
van der Hoop bequest)

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

The
National Gallery, London

23 June – 4 September 2016

This
summer, the National Gallery explores great paintings from a unique
perspective: from the point of view of the artists who owned them.

Spanning over five hundred years of art history, Painters’ Paintings
presents more than eighty works, which were once in the possession of
great painters: pictures that artists were given or chose to acquire,
works they lived with and were inspired by. This is an exceptional
opportunity to glimpse inside the private world of these painters and to
understand the motivations of artists as collectors of paintings.

The inspiration for this exhibition is a painter’s painting: Corot’s Italian Woman,
left to the nation by Lucian Freud following his death in 2011. Freud
had bought the 'Italian Woman' 10 years earlier, no doubt drawn to its
solid brushwork and intense physical presence. A major work in its own
right, the painting demands to be considered in the light of Freud’s
achievements, as a painter who tackled the representation of the human
figure with vigour comparable to Corot’s.

In his will, Freud stated that he wanted to leave the painting to the
nation as a thank you for welcoming his family so warmly when they
arrived in the UK as refugees fleeing the Nazis. He also stipulated that
the painting’s new home should be the National Gallery, where it could
be enjoyed by future generations.

Anne Robbins, Curator of 'Painters’ Paintings' says:

“Since its acquisition the painting’s notable provenance has
attracted considerable attention – in fact the picture is often
appraised in the light of Freud’s own achievements, almost eclipsing the
intrinsic merits of Corot’s canvas. It made us start considering
questions such as which paintings do artists choose to hang on their own
walls? How do the works of art they have in their homes and studios
influence their personal creative journeys? What can we learn about
painters from their collection of paintings? 'Painters’ Paintings: From
Freud to Van Dyck' is the result.”

The National Gallery holds a number of important paintings which,
like the Corot, once belonged to celebrated painters: Van Dyck’s Titian;
Reynolds’s Rembrandt, and Matisse’s Degas among many others. 'Painters’
Paintings' is organised as a series of case studies each devoted to a
particular painter-collector: Freud, Matisse, Degas, Leighton, Watts, Lawrence, Reynolds, and Van Dyck.
'Painters’ Paintings' explores the motivations of these artists – as
patrons, rivals, speculators - to collect paintings. The exhibition
looks at the significance of these works of art for the painters who
owned them - as tokens of friendship, status symbols, models to emulate,
cherished possessions, financial investments or sources of inspiration.

Works from these artists’ collections are juxtaposed with a number of
their own paintings, highlighting the connections between their own
creative production and the art they lived with. These pairings and
confrontations shed new light on both the paintings and the creative
process of the painters who owned them, creating a dynamic and original
dialogue between possession and painterly creation.

Half the works in the exhibition are loans from public and private
collections, from New York and Philadelphia to Copenhagen and Paris. A
number of them have not been seen in public for several decades.

Dr Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery says:

“Artists by definition live with their own pictures, but what
motivates them to possess works by other painters, be they
contemporaries – friends or rivals – or older masters? The exhibition
looks for the answers in the collecting of Freud, Matisse, Degas,
Leighton, Watts, Lawrence, Reynolds, and Van Dyck.”

Lucian Freud (1922–2011)

Lucian Freud’s work remains at the forefront of British figurative
art. Fascinated by the tactile quality of paint, Freud had a lifelong
fascination with the great painters of the past, and often visited
museums and galleries, “I go and see pictures rather like going to the
doctor. To get some help”, he said. At home, Freud surrounded himself
with works of art he could admire in the flesh: paintings by 19th
century French and British masters - Constable,
Corot, Degas – each exuding their own unique energy.

This room includes
examples of these, such as Corot’s 'Italian Woman' (about 1870, The
National Gallery, London), displayed here just as Freud showed it in his
drawing room: between a small Degas bronze ('Portrait of a Woman',
after 1918, Leeds Museums and Galleries (Leeds Art Gallery)), and a
sketch sent to him by his friend Frank Auerbach as a birthday card
(2002, Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge).

and delightful Constable portrait ('Laura Moubray', 1808,
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh) – is explored in his section,
which also looks at the influence of these works on his own
investigations into the human figure.

Matisse started acquiring pictures long before he had encountered
success and could afford to do so; his collection also grew through
gifts and exchanges with fellow artists. He famously swapped pictures
with Picasso: he sent the Spanish artist a drawing in 1941 as a thank
you for Picasso looking after his bank vault in occupied Paris.

and his Gauguin
'Young Man with a Flower behind his Ear' (1891, Property from a
distinguished Private Collection - courtesy of Christie's) informed
Matisse’s own bold, simplified style, as his work was evolving towards a
greater degree of abstraction, evident in his spectacular sculpture
'Back III' (1916–17, Centre Pompidou, Mnam/Cci, Paris), borrowing from
his Cézanne.

We know tantalisingly little about the circumstances
surrounding Matisse’s purchase of Degas’s Combing the Hair
(about 1896, The National Gallery, London) yet the painting can be
viewed from the vantage point of Matisse’s own work, rich in such scenes
– as reflected in his 'The Inattentive Reader' (1919, Tate).

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas (1834–1917)

A supreme master of technique and unrivalled experimentalist, Degas
was an astute observer of modern life, yet his art remained embedded in
tradition. He was also one of the greatest collectors of his time.
“Degas carries on…buying, buying: in the evening he asks himself how he
will pay for what he bought that day, and the next morning he starts
again…” a friend wrote in 1896. Degas often traded his own paintings or
pastels against the pieces he coveted most (Manet, 'Woman with a Cat',
1880–2, Tate). He acquired a wide range of works, from Old Masters
paintings to pictures by artists considered, at that time, avant-garde,
such as Cézanne’s' Bather with Outstretched Arm' (1883–85, Collection
Jasper Johns).

'Study of the Sky
at Sunset', 1849–50, The British Museum, London), focussing his
attention on paintings which held a particular emotional significance
for him and collecting those works as an act of homage. He also
supported struggling artists – Gauguin, Sisley
- by buying their works

One of the most renowned painters and sculptors of the Victorian era,
and the leading figure of its art establishment, Leighton was aware of
the power of art to convey social prestige and guarantee professional
progress. He displayed in his sumptuous Holland Park studio-house the
magnificent ensemble of pictures and objects he had purchased. Among
them were Italian Renaissance paintings which showed his refined taste (Possibly by Jacopo Tintoretto, Jupiter and Semele, about 1545, The National Gallery, London) but also mid-19th century. French landscapes alluding to his continental training.

Corot’s Four Times of Day
(about 1858, The National Gallery, London) formed the centrepiece of
his drawing room, an enlightened choice showing Leighton’s advanced
appreciation of French landscape painters. There, the Corot panels
served as a source of inspiration as much as interior decoration,
resonating with Leighton’s own landscapes, arguably the most individual
part of his artistic production ('Aynhoe Park', 1860s, and 'Trees at
Cliveden', 1880s, both Private Collection).

The painter George Frederic Watts, Leighton’s friend, neighbour, and
regular visitor to his house, would have been impressed by the vast
array of pictures in Leighton’s collection. The two artists shared a
love for Italy and a desire to belong to the great artistic tradition
reaching back to the Renaissance; in his 'Self Portrait in a Red Robe'
(about 1853, Watts Gallery) he depicted himself in the robes of a
Venetian senator. Determined to make art accessible to all, Watts gave
the few paintings he owned to public galleries – not least the imposing Knight of S. Stefano (probably Girolamo Macchietti, after 1563, The National Gallery, London).

Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830)

Lawrence was the leading British portraitist of the early 19th
century. He was largely self-taught and hugely influenced by Sir Joshua
Reynolds, following in his footsteps to become President of the Royal
Academy. Like Degas, Lawrence was a voracious, obsessional collector,
using the proceeds of the sale of his society portraits to amass an
incomparable collection of Old Master drawings - an inventory upon his
death listed some 4,300 drawings, including Carracci’s immense A Woman borne off by a Sea God (?) (about 1599, The National Gallery, London) and a number of paintings including Raphael’s Allegory (about 1504, The National Gallery, London) and Reni’s Coronation of the Virgin, (about 1607, The National Gallery, London).

This section of the exhibition places Lawrence’s collecting within
his social world. The paintings he acquired established his reputation
as a great connoisseur; his advice was much sought by influential
friends such as John Julius Angerstein and Sir George Beaumont, whose
collections came to form the nucleus of the National Gallery holdings.
Beyond his acquisitive zeal, the prodigiously gifted Lawrence also
sought to gain information about his favoured artists’ methods. An
exceptional loan from a private collection, his portrait of the Baring
Brothers (Lawrence, 'Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, John Baring and
Charles Wall', 1806–07) demonstrates his absorption of the tradition of
Renaissance male portrait, here injected with Lawrence’s trademark dash
and virtuosity.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792)

As the inaugural President of the Royal Academy, Reynolds was one of
the most significant figures of the British art world in the 18th
century; for him, collecting was a life-long passion, which he likened
to “a great game”. Reynolds had a vast collection of drawings, paintings
and prints that informed both his teachings and supported his ideas
about what constituted great art – style of Van Dyck (The Horses of Achilles, 1635–45, The National Gallery, London), Giovanni Bellini (The Agony in the Garden, about 1465, The National Gallery, London), after Michelangelo (Leda and the Swan, after 1530, The National Gallery, London), Poussin (The Adoration of the Shepherds, about 1633–4, The National Gallery, London) and

Gainsborough’s
'Girl with Pigs' (1781–2, Castle Howard Collection), bought by Reynolds
in 1782, also illustrates Reynold’s interest for the work of his
contemporaries, demonstrating the breadth of his taste, but also its
changeability - soon after, Reynolds tried to exchange his Gainsborough
for a Titian.

Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641)

Van Dyck was England’s leading court painter in the first half of the
17th century. Before enjoying success, he worked in the studio of
Rubens, himself a great collector; following his master’s example, Van
Dyck would soon acquire his own impressive array of Italian pictures.
While he owned paintings by Raphael and Tintoretto,
Van Dyck was almost single-minded in his passion for the work of
Titian. Inventories made on the artist’s death list 19 works by Titian,
most of which were portraits, including the Vendramin Family (1540–5, The National Gallery, London) and Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo (about 1510, The National Gallery, London).

This room focuses on Van Dyck as collector, through his intense
interest for the work of Titian, to whom he may owe his ingenious
compositional devices (Lord John Stuart and His Brother, Lord Bernard Stuart, about 1638, The National Gallery, London) and technical freedom ('Thomas Killigrew and William, Lord Crofts (?)',
1638, The Royal Collection/HM Queen Elizabeth II). The resonance
between Titian’s and Van Dyck’s depictions of figures is just one of the
stories to be explored within this final section of the exhibition.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Masterpieces
from four of the finest collections of Dada and Surrealist art ever
assembled will be brought together in this summer's major exhibition at
the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (SNGMA). Surreal Encounters: Collecting the Marvellous
will explore the passions and obsessions that led to the creation of
four very different collections, which are bound together by a web of
fascinating links and connections, and united by the extraordinary
quality of the works they comprise.

Surrealism was one of the
most radical movements of the twentieth century, which challenged
conventions through the exploration of the subconscious mind, the world
of dreams and the laws of chance. Emerging from the chaotic creativity
of Dada (itself a powerful rejection of traditional values triggered by
the horrors of the First World War) its influence on our wider culture
remains potent almost a century after it first appeared in Paris in the
1920s.

Not to be Reproduced
(1937) will be among the highlights of this exceptional overview of
Surrealist art. The exhibition will also tell the personal stories of
the fascinating individuals who pursued these works with such dedication
and discernment.

The first of these - the poet, publisher and
patron of the arts, Edward James (1907-84) and the artist, biographer
and exhibition organiser, Roland Penrose (1900-84) - acquired the
majority of the works in their collections while the Surrealist movement
was at its height in the interwar years, their choices informed by
close associations and friendships with many of the artists.

James
was an important supporter of Salvador Dalí and René Magritte in
particular, while Penrose was first introduced to Surrealism through a
friendship with Max Ernst. The stories behind James’s commissioning of
works such as

Dalí’s famous Mae West Lips Sofa (1938) and

Magritte’s The Red Model III (1937)

and the role of PUne Semaine de Bonté (1934) will demonstrate how significant these relationships were for both the artists and the collectors.

enrose in the production of Ernst’s seminal collage novel

Other celebrated works on show that formed part of these two profoundly important collections include

Miró’s Head of a Catalan Peasant (1925); and The House Opposite (c.1945) by Leonora Carrington.

While
the Penrose and James collections are now largely dispersed, the
extraordinary collection of Dada and Surrealist art put together by
Gabrielle Keiller (1908-95), was bequeathed in its entirety to the
SNGMAon her death in 1995, the largest benefaction in the institution’s
history. Keiller devoted herself to this area following a visit to the
Venice home of the celebrated American art lover Peggy Guggenheim in
1960, which proved to be a pivotal moment in her life. She went on to
acquire outstanding works such as Marcel Duchamp’s La Boîte-en-Valise (1935-41), Alberto Giacometti’s Disagreeable Object, to be Thrown Away (1931)

and Girl Born without a Mother (c.1916-17)
by Francis Picabia.

Recognizing the fundamental significance of
Surrealism’s literary aspect, Keiller also worked assiduously to create a
magnificent library and archive, full of rare books, periodicals,
manifestos and manuscripts, which makes the SNGMA one of the world’s
foremost centres for the study of the movement.

The exhibition
will be brought up to date by the inclusion of works from the collection
of Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch, who have spent more than 40 years in their
quest to build up an historically balanced collection of Surrealism,
which they have recently presented to the city of Berlin, where they
still live. The collection features many outstanding paintings by
Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, André Masson, Leonor Fini, Ernst,
Tanguy, Magritte and Miró; sculptures by Hans Arp and Hans Bellmer; and
works by André Breton, the leader of the Surrealists. Highlights include
Masson’s Massacre (1931), Ernst’s Head of ‘The Fireside Angel’ (c.1937),

The
exhibition’s curator in Edinburgh, Keith Hartley, who is Deputy
Director of the SNGMA, has said, “Surrealist art has captured the public
imagination like perhaps no other movement of modern art. The very word
‘surreal’ has become a by-word to describe anything that is wonderfully
strange, akin to what André Breton, the chief theorist of Surrealism,
called ‘the marvellous’. This exhibition offers an exceptional
opportunity to enjoy art that is full of ‘the marvellous’. It brings
together many important works which have rarely been seen in public, by a
wide range of Surrealist artists, and creates some very exciting new
juxtapositions.”

“The four collections represented here have
different origins and trajectories, different historical contexts and
come out of different creative urges. But what they all display is a
high level of quality, aesthetic discernment, dedication and commitment,
and the collectors themselves, while passionate about their private
visions, were and are always mindful of contributing something to the
public good. It is therefore not surprising that the ways in which
Surrealist art has been collected display many of the idiosyncratic
passions of Surrealism itself.”